Friday, October 1, 2010

Leaving the flatlands behind and with the Rocky's in view the anticipation of reaching our final destination was at large. The infinite boundless range that is growing larger with every kilo we drive has left me speechless through the drive. It was a blessed ethereal feeling, one like none other that I have ever felt. An overwhelming load of what my eyes can take in while driving into and through the Rocky's was amazing and to enjoy it in silence. My favorite part of these particular pictures is that my eye starts at the blue tint of the peaks then is drawn down to our uhaul driving right towards them.

Yes! I did say that my admiration of this fragment of the drive was in silence, both kiddies were asleep. Caleb was exhausted from his couple of days of pure kid fun in the drum, he was wiped.

Approaching Banff at the end of along weekend we were defiantly going in the right direction, as the other way was bumper to bumper for hours. Stopping at the park entrance booths awaiting our turn to answer " No ticket needed today, we are moving to BC" The smiling ticket man was happy to wave us through to the "new world" of the Canadian Alps........

We took our time and stopped in the village of Banff and found a park to stretch our legs ad take these beautiful photos. The closest I have been to mountains other then holding a picture and fantasizing that this day will come........as the boys run around, charlie and I take up a piece of green to chill and enjoy this moment. The pooch and I did some catching up, snuggling, which is the obvious invite to lay right on me:) Our animal family members are stellar and just doing so well!

As the weeins slip back into slumber and the rain has joined us for the drive I settle in on what I am told is the treacherous part of the of the drive. This is where the white knuckling starts, maybe the sweats will arrive. So the pit of stomach tells me to get going already. BUT I still managed to take the needed welcome sign photo op. And still debating if a camera would be considered a hand held device and frowned upon to use while driving. ( which is another picture I deleted by accident)

Rolling on through driving between the Rocky's and the Columbia Mountain Range requesting that the walkie talkies be used at a minimum as I wanted total concentration in hitting these hills, dips, valley's with all I got. Preparing for tunnels, gearing down with accuracy and becoming more confident with each tire round, I hear some tussling around.

"MOM".......... he's awake....lol "Look how close we are to the mountains, the closer we get to the snowy mountains the bigger they get" Yes hunny we are almost there!

Nearing our day of driving we need to make one last descend into Golden, it was called something like the 20 kilo descend. Geeze this hill went forever, we even found our hotel before we hit the bottom. The above picture was from our balcony in Golden.

At this time I want to thank everyone for the good thoughts, prayers of safety as we could feel them upon us like bubble wrap. We had a smooth road to Golden town. I had this idea to keep very open to bad luck, waiting for it to show it's face. But was very happy that we did not have to meet. I want to thank those who scared the begeezers out of me about the risky, scary, nail biting drive! I expected the worst and got the better! Happy to rest our bones and mind with some food and good cheer as we are here!

The wanting of food helped get the kids back in the car to scope out the town and get our first dining experience under our belts. Picking a local establishment that had good food paired with food drink and that much needed shot of tequila. A pretty trendy eatery with a bar turned us away.......No kids allowed....pfft, really it like only 5:30 no where near the time where we may meet a messy bar patron....but Ya NO KIDS. We moved along to a grizzly pub that was able to accommodate our baggage.

A little dishearten by our first dining experience, we will sleep on it and start fresh in the morning. Starting our day with our tag along coffee maker perking it's heart out, lounging with the fam and planning our day of exploring the mountain town of Golden. We head to the Info Centre that was brand spankin new and happy to hand out an abundance of brochures on local fare.

Finding a lovely bridge over the kicking horse river, a river you can see the beautiful clean green-blue water...amazing! It is nice being able to see in person what I have been researchingand the familiar sights coming to life. Picking a deli for lunch which is detrimental to our survival in any town, well for this family anyways, we walked into a authentic deli. I really mean authentic, like right out of NYC baby. The busy front counter of patrons ordering the line up growing out the door, the pastries making there way into our senses it was all very intoxicating, until we were brought back to reality by a quite annoyed abrupt counter gal who was clearly not happy to serve us. Short with her answer, barbaric in her expressions and just pissed off we showed up to order food. Anyone with hungry kids will know, I cannot possibly leave this restaurant for another....AGAIN

So I ordered as fast as I could and after being shot down with curt answers, I dare not ask anymore. In the pictures below you will see two happy kids eating and papa was so agitated by this young lady he could not possibly order food as their sandwich's were premade ALL with mayo. Except for the ones she made for other more familiar customers while we were sitting right there.

oopsy I deleted a photo of our little dude eating a sausage roll :(

Soooo our next stop is another restaurant or some take out....poor guy! At this point Jeff was ready to hit the road to Rev......Golden was not so golden and our sparkly shade of emerald green turned to a shade of black and quick. These mishaps could of happened anywhere, however we as a family never got that feeling that Golden was for us. We gave it an extra day to drive around but nope just not for us.

A variety of hot sauce........seems to be big deal in these parts

A well developed Ski Resort of ten years couldn't of even changed our minds.

We woke the next day bright and early and relieved for the comfort of the open road that we have grown to love.

Gypsy Souls was born out of a conversation I was having with my hubby, of what name to call my blog that would represent us as a whole. We wanted our family and friends to be able to check in to our adventures.

Being that we are earthy by nature and have always changed our situation by not having a fear of up-rooting and moving on. Some may think something to do with hippies........ but hippies are dirty, don't really care to work and fall on the slacker side of life.....But GYPSIES however, ya we move around, what we taketh form our mother earth we givith back and most definately have differnt ethics in the need to provide by financial gains.

Which leads to the spiritual part of humans, regarded by others as the most moral aspect of oneself......The SOUL, first is a Soul that you can see kindness though his eyes, then a Soul that is older and wiser then his years, a new Soul that is the most determined and that leaves me.........the Gypsy!